t’s no secret that American special operations forces have been actively hunting members of Islamic State’s franchise in Afghanistan, known as ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K. But official details about a raid in 2017 show that the Afghanistan government’s most elite unit, the shadowy Ktah Khas battalion, has been fighting alongside U.S. troops during the campaign.

On the night of April 26, 2017, helicopters inserted a combined force of American special operators, including U.S. Army Rangers, and Afghan commandos into the Mohmand Valley in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province. A firefight ensued that lasted into the early hours of April 27, 2017.